PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Frybrid site is closing

GregMN · #7 04-01-2015, 09:05 PM

In my opinion....

The business model was not sustainable. It is hard to charge enough to make a profit on items that a DIY'r can make at home.
Most of the VO market is DIY'rs.
The demand for the product rose and fell with the pain of the cost of fuel.
The demand was also affected by the bad reputation of running VO caused by some bad operators. There are no barriers to entering the "business" of selling VO kits. Marketing trumps engineering on the internet and a lot of shysters came and went.

He seemed to be good at engineering and fabrication, but the business could not afford a customer service person to make sure that orders were shipped in a timely manner or refunds given when appropriate. So, that book keeping function is the ball that got dropped. Then, it doesn't take much for a one man operation to get behind if any problems occur in their personal life. When it isn't fun anymore, you just kind of wander off.

I liked the site because he was one of the few operators that took a scientific approach to the business of running a diesel vehicle on VO. There was a lot of good information on that site. The forum on that site had some of the best resource people around. If you had a problem, someone there had probably already solved it.

I feel bad for the people who did not get what they paid for.